Paul Hindemith - Symphonies (Christoph Eschenbach)

Information

Composer: Paul Hindemith

• (01) Symphony 'Mathis der Maler'
• (04) Symphony in E flat

NDR Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Date: 2015
Label: Ondine
https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=5652

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Review

PERFORMANCE: **** / RECORDING: ****

The Symphony ‘Mathis der Maler’ is one of Paul Hindemith’s most frequently recorded works, and with good reason. Both in its symphonic and full operatic guise, the music for Mathis represents the peak of his middle period, and it was following the Symphony’s premiere by the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1934 that the Nazis banned Hindemith’s work, with Goebbels later that year labelling him an ‘atonal noisemaker’. Addressing the artist’s place in society, Mathis summed up German musical resistance to the Nazi regime, but it retains its appeal today for orchestras and listeners alike.

Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony Orchestra give a fine performance, in quite spacious tempos, without really challenging the best recordings. The recorded sound is good – you wouldn’t know it is ‘live’ – yet the playing lacks ideal glow, something necessary in such celestial pieces as the opening ‘Concert of Angels’ (the titles being derived from panels in the Isenheim Altarpiece of Mathias Grünewald).

The less frequently recorded Symphony in E flat, premiered in Minneapolis in 1941 under Dimitri Mitropoulos, makes this new release a stronger proposition. It is an invigorating work that blends American orchestral virtuosity with German symphonic rigour, and this performance catches its colour and drive. The work’s Beethovenian structure (in four movements) and indeed energy came across here, as does the almost Brucknerian quality of its dark-hued, brassy apotheoses. A conductor who, like Hindemith, has divided his career between Germany and America, Eschenbach has all the requisite feeling for Hindemith’s world.

-- John Allison, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Oct/Hindemith_Mathis_ODE12752.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Nov/Hindemith_Mathis_ODE12752.htm
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/hindemith-symphonies-ndr-sinfonieorchestereschenbach/
https://www.amazon.com/Hindemith-Symphonie-Mathis-Maler-Es/dp/B014JJB7PE

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Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher and conductor. Hindemith is among the most significant German composers of his time. His early works are in a late romantic idiom, and he later produced expressionist works, before developing his neoclassical style in the 1920s. Notable compositions include his song cycle Das Marienleben (1923) and opera Mathis der Maler (1938). Hindemith's most popular work, both on record and in the concert hall, is probably the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, written in 1943.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemith

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Christoph Eschenbach (born February 20, 1940) is a German-born pianist and conductor. He studied conducting with George Szell, and also counted Herbert von Karajan as a mentor. Eschenbach has been chief conductor and music director of the orchestras such as the NDR Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, the Houston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra. In November 2017, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin announced the appointment of Eschenbach as its next chief conductor. He has made more than 80 recordings as piano soloist, conductor, or both.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Eschenbach

http://www.christoph-eschenbach.com/

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